My sources say that this battle of the "statistics" was taken very seriously by all players -- the White House, State and Justice. Yet, WHY was this game of statistics so important to the players? If some weapons from the American civilian market were making it to Mexico into the hand of drug gang killers that was bad enough. What was the importance of insisting that it was 90 percent, 80 percent, or finally 70 percent? Would such statistics make any difference to the law enforcement tactics necessary to curtail them? No.

This statistics mania is similar to the focus on "body counts" in Vietnam. Yet if Vietnam body counts were supposed to be a measure of how we were winning that war, the focus on the 90 percent meme was certainly not designed to be a measure of how we were winning the war against arming the cartels, but rather by what overwhelming standard we were LOSING. Why?

Recall what the whistleblower ATF agents told us right after this scandal broke in the wake of the death of Brian Terry: "ATF source confirms ‘walking’ guns to Mexico to ‘pad’ statistics."

In "In at the beginning, Part 3," our sources tell us how the demand to "pad statistics" from on high apparently led to the tactic of "letting the guns walk."

Indeed, our sources say, Hillary was obsessed with defending the 90 percent meme. There was a pervasive sense at the highest levels of the White House, State, Justice and in DHS that the Mexican agony could provide domestic opportunities for Rahm Emanuel's dictum: "Never let a good crisis go to waste," the sources say.

At the strategic level, this meant that there were increasing demands for "better statistics." In other words, if the 90 percent meme was not provable it must be because enough statistics of the "right" sort were not being gathered. Again, the comparison with Vietnam War body counts was striking, say the sources. The demand this time though, as noted above in Part 2, was for statistics indicating defeat, not victory.

The political implications of this, say the sources, were evident at State long before the knowledge about Fast and Furious and gunwalking became public. From the repeated statements from Obama to Hillary and on down the Obama administration food chain it was obvious to the the State Department sources that what the "Mexican hat dance" (to use the words of one my sources) was about was to justify more federal firearms restrictions.

The sources hastened, in every case, to explain to me that Hillary kept herself at arms-length from some of the critical strategy meetings at both the White House political level (Obama and Emanuel) and the National Security Council policy administrative level about Mexico and Project Gunrunner program.

Said one, "Hillary doesn't have to audition for the part of Caesar's wife. She knows when to be out of the room." The source added that while her demands for "better," i.e., higher, statistics of American civilian market firearms seized at Mexican crime scenes were "incessant," Hillary knew instinctively to stay out of the meetings where HOW those "better statistics" were to be achieved were discussed.

They also cautioned against expecting any mention of the tactic of "walking guns" at the higher levels of this scandal. More guns in Mexico from American civilian firearm sources found beside dead bodies was the implicit goal, they say, but don't look for any specific mention of the tactic of "gunwalking" at Hillary's level in documents yet to be discovered. As my "old spook" source said in early March:

"Do you think," he asked me, "that this happened accidentally in a vacuum?" Meaning that one day "Gunwalker Bill" Newell, Phoenix SAC, just got a wild hair and decided to invent his own foreign policy. "Things like this happen because of meetings. People sit in meetings and they decide what they want to happen. And then they take decisions, make policy and implement that policy to achieve those ends." He added, "That's why State is so nervous. They signed off on this. In a meeting."

. . . He added, "Of course the meeting transcripts won't reflect the truth so plainly, but then neither did the Wannsee Conference. These bastards always talk in riddles about what they're really after. Watch what they do, not what they say."

The sources at State repeatedly cautioned about looking for mentions of the tactical ("gunwalking") in strategic level documents and meeting transcripts. "They will all say that they didn't know about any 'Fast and Furious' or 'gunwalking,'" one source said, "and they will be accurate. . . as far it goes." What such statements are hiding, all the sources said, is the strategic fact that the higher ups wanted to achieve: the 90 percent myth. Exactly HOW that was accomplished with the tactic of gunwalking, my sources say, probably was closely held within a small group at the National Security Council and designated "in the know" people at various critical command and control points in the various agencies.

The sources believe that there were two people close to Hillary (one by position, one personally) who knew the broad outlines of the "gunwalking strategy," and thus are culpable in its bloody tactical results. One was Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg. Recall Hillary's statement upon Steinberg's resignation from "In at the beginning," Part 1:

Clinton said Steinberg had been a “fixture” at meetings with the National Security Council (NSC) and frequently represented the US State Department at the White House.

Part of this was that Steinberg was, first and foremost, an Obama man and not "loyal" to Hillary as the Clinton partisans saw it. Part also was that Hillary preferred to maintain personal distance from the White House staff, preferring to run her shop and not have to deal with Obama minions, but rather with Obama himself when she felt the need to. But part of it, too, say the sources was Hillary's cat-like sense of danger where the Obama partisans were concerned.

The Obama White House denizens, said one source, were inexperienced, reckless and arrogant, whereas Hillary had been taught by experience the virtues of not getting caught in policy blow-back. There was also a sense of Hillary preserving her political options if an Obama presidency imploded from the aforementioned inexperience, recklessness and arrogance. Hillary demanded to KNOW everything that was going on, said one source, but wanted insulation from the execution of reckless policy, which the gunwalking policy certainly was. But that demand for information led to a closer exposure of Clinton herself to the Gunwalker Scandal, say the sources.

The other man close to Hillary but familiar about the overall gunwalking strategy, sources say, was Andrew J. Shapiro, Clinton's Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs at the Department of State.

A Hillary intimate, Wikipedia says:

Shapiro then became a legislative assistant for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D–NY). In 2005, Clinton appointed him as her senior defense and foreign policy adviser. In this capacity, he was Senator Clinton's liaison with the Pentagon and worked closely with her in connection with her work as a member of the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services. According to The New Republic "it is Shapiro, Hillaryites say, who is in the room for most of her important foreign policy decisions" as senator. Shapiro has been described as a hawk on defense and Israel, and was reportedly influential in Clinton's decision to vote in favor of the Iraq Resolution in 2002.

During the 2008 presidential election, Shapiro was a member of Hillary Clinton's campaign team, with his special focus being on foreign affairs.

During the presidential transition of Barack Obama, Shapiro was a member of the Obama-Biden Department of Defense Agency Review Team. Following the confirmation of Hillary Clinton as United States Secretary of State on January 21, 2009, President of the United States Barack Obama nominated Shapiro as Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs. After Senate confirmation, Shapiro was sworn into office on June 22, 2009.

My sources say that as Hillary's trusted subordinate, it was Shapiro who first described to the Secretary of State the details of what has become the Gunwalker Scandal.

The precise extent to which Hillary Clinton's knowledge of, and responsibility for, the Gunwalker Plot, lies within the memories of these two men, Shapiro and Steinberg, sources say.

The sources also express dismay that the Issa committee is apparently restricting itself to the Department of Justice and not venturing further afield. The House Foreign Affairs Committee, they say, needs to summon these two men and their subordinates -- especially at the Mexico Desk at State -- and question them under oath as to what Hillary Clinton knew about the origins of the Gunwalker Scandal and when she knew it.

There is one other thing those sources agree upon. The CIA, they say, knows "everything" about the "Mexican hat dance" that became the Gunwalker Scandal.

In Part 4 of "In at the beginning" we will explore the interface between the State Department, the CIA and the Gunwalker Plot.

Yeah but the company apparently belongs to the left now, so is state and justice has been ever since Clinton fired all those US attorneys not so long ago. .

Guess there might have been a reason he did that, considering the people we now know we are dealing with. It's been paying dividends ever since. He was strengthening their interior lines. Of course Bush couldn't see it and so he let the Clinton replacements stay. The unmitigated ass.

Kinda makes you wonder what else is going on that we don't know about, doesn't it? I assure you it's massive. They wouldn't go to this much trouble to steal a few lollypops but they would if they were going to steal the factory, which is exactly what is happening.

I'll never trust the United States Federal Government again. They were willing to frame and kill Americans for their own agenda. I can't begin to describe the sick feeling I have right now. If I had my way, they would be tried and executed for Treason. That is what this is. I think it's about time we start reinforcing Treason laws again.

I know in my gut, Obama is a Weather Underground operative. There are rumors now that his real father is Malcolm X. It would certainly fit in with what he's been doing.

It makes me wonder what else was orchestrated by them. The shooting of the Judge and Gabrielle Giffords, and the blaming on Sarah Palin? The BP Disaster? The killing of the Navy Seals? They were fingered after the so called killing of Bin Laden, like the mob used to finger someone for execution.

He's also appointed members of the Muslim Brotherhood into the State Department and DHS. This isn't America, where are we?

I think people need to quit called this the "Gunwalker Policy." Policy is when you are following the law. Crime is when you are using the law for cover, to commit crime. This entire regime is using the cover of the Federal Government to commit crimes against its own citizens. Hillary Clinton is as evil as Obama. Someone with character would never work for him or with him. They wouldn't want their names tied to him.

Is it safe to say the CIA is not about protecting America anymore? I don't know where I'm living anymore. I feel like I went to sleep and woke up in some third world, rogue, country.

The American people aren't going to settle for people being allowed to walk away from this. Hillary Clinton is a citizen of this country. She is obliged to follow the laws like everyone else. She does not get any better treatment than any other citizen. None of them will. We won't stand for that. I'm not going to have my kids living in the rat infested sewer, that these people are creating.

2000 assault rifles were shipped to criminals in Mexico. Members of the NSC council staff were briefed on the operation. I can't believe that there wasn't at least a degree of informal coordination with the DoS at some level.

Anonymous writes, "I'll never trust the United States Federal Government again."

Indeed. As the Antifederalists warned way back in the late 18th century, the Federal government would prove to be nothing but untrustworthy. That prophecy was first fulfilled in the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, and has been fulfilled countless since then.

The Federal government lost legitimacy a long, long time ago, and the sooner the American people realize this, the sooner we as a nation can go back to the drawing board (this time taking much more seriously the worries of the Antifederalists) and get to the business of establishing a true and lasting constitutional order.

Our constant message to the people must therefore be: "The Federals are no longer fit to govern, if they ever were. Think like the Founders, and ACT."

I never thought I'd say this, but it seems the military taking over to straighten this mess that we have in government is the only solution. I would rather trust West Point graduates anyday than those from Harvard.

My question is, "whom can we actually now trust?" The Trojan in the White House is commander of the military, and those "high up military officers" are thinking more about their selves and retirement. Our only means now is to place all efforts on the Congress and Senate to take the necessary steps for impeachment of Obama, afterwhich, he is then unprotected and may then be fully prosecuted. If we survive, then perhaps the populace will learn a leason that all politicians backgrounds must be fully investigated prior to election. Hasa such been done regarding Obama, the moslem trojan would never have been elected. My believe is also that the Clintons' had a very heavy hand in having Obama elected. I also fear the body count may actually worsen considerably.

These are people whose only job is to protect and defend us through duty and honor to uphold and reinforce the rule of law.The truth is something far different and most sinister.They are tyrants and traitors who do no such thing, as they have violated and abrogated every principle, moral, and ethical concept of the oath they took upon obtaining high office, not to mention the oath of just plain old fashion being an American.Hillary, along with all of these criminals, because lets be dead honest here, their intentions are quite clear:Overthrow of this here Constitutional Republic from the inside out, in order to obtain the sovereign will and power that belongs to, and is invested in We The People.Hang every damn one of them, for these people are the most lowly decrepit kind of humans, ones who lust for absolute power. I say hang them, politically, and if it becomes the only method of lawful redress effective in dealing with such a scourge, hang them as the traitors and tyrants they are.It is what they deserve for such trespasses and transgressions upon our Liberty and Rule of Law.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.